KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwanda somberly commemorated the start, 25 years ago, of its genocide in which some 800,000 people were killed, as the country continues to grapple with the consequences of the slaughter.

President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame on Sunday lay wreaths and lit a flame at the mass burial ground of 250,000 victims at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center in the capital, Kigali.

There will be a procession through the capital to the National Stadium where 30,000 are expected to participate in an evening candlelit ceremony.

The mass killing of Rwanda's Tutsi minority was ignited on April 6, 1994, when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader, who, like the majority of Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.